The development of things is unimaginable, a few hours after the victory of Huangshagang, Chang Ning's soldiers and horses are still cleaning the battlefield, Chang Ning and his generals are still discussing how to attack the strategy of the next step, from the direction of Gansu Town, eighty miles behind him, a faint fire came from the direction of Gansu Town, eighty miles away.

Standing on the hillside near the left, the light of the fire in the direction of Gansu Town is clearly visible, and if you listen carefully, you can hear a dull rumbling sound similar to an explosion; This qiē made Chang Ninghu suspicious.

This time, in order to fight to the death with the Tartar soldiers in front of them, Gansu Town almost poured out the nest, and the Gansu Five Guards were all dispatched, leaving only more than 3,000 soldiers and horses guarding the fortress near the pass on the left side of the Great Wall, and only more than 3,000 soldiers and horses remained in Gansu Town. Chang Ning didn't realize the horror of this incident at first, but now, his heart was full of panic.

Soon after, the watchman came with even worse news that the beacon on the beacon tower at the pass of the Great Wall to the north had been lit, which meant that the town of Gansu must have been attacked.

Chang Ning had no choice, and immediately ordered the army to be rescued, but he ignored that there were more than 30,000 Tartar soldiers in front of him who were cowering in Wan'an County.

Chang Ning had no choice but to order the battle, in the wilderness where he could not see his fingers, a fierce battle of life and death was staged again, but unlike the battle during the day, the mentality of the Ming army has changed dramatically, and the town of Gansu in the rear is under siege, how can they be entangled with the Tartars in front of them with peace of mind; Driven by this mentality, the Ming army fought and left, moving closer to the direction of Gansu Town, intending to retreat into Gansu Town in time, stick to the fortified city and then try to find other methods.

When the sky was slightly bright, the Ming army did not know how many men and horses they lost in the dark night, but they could finally see the shadow of the tall city wall of Gansu Town. Although there were fireworks in the city, Chang Ning's heart was a little calmer when he saw the dragon flag fluttering on the city's head. Although at least 10,000 soldiers and horses were lost that night, if more than 20,000 men under his command could retreat to the city, they could still stop the Tartars' pace.

Just when he ordered all the people to retreat into the town of Gansu, a scene that broke his heart and chilled happened, the dragon flag fluttering on the city tower made a kraka sound in the morning wind, like a paper kite with a broken thread fell to the city, and at the same time, the eagle flag with angry eyebrows slowly rose on the flagpole of the city tower, which was the military flag of the Tartars, that was the symbol of the Tatars.

A low horn sounded all around, and countless Tartar figures appeared up and down the city, and a figure appeared on the city tower with his waist crossed, letting out an earth-shattering laugh, and shouting in half-baked Chinese: "My Great Yuan Dayan Khan is here, you will surrender, and you will not be killed!" Don't surrender, kill them all! ”

There was a rumbling noise, and thousands of round objects fell from the city, falling to the gravel ground below the city and tumbling endlessly. It was thousands of heads, all of them from the military and civilians in the town.

Chang Ning's eyes were shattered, but he knew that there was no chance of survival today, and it was impossible to surrender, and if the dignified Ming General surrendered in order to survive, it would be a lifelong shame, even for the sake of more than 20,000 lives under his command.

Chang Ning slowly ordered the formation to be reorganized, and the generals and soldiers under his command knew that the last moment was coming, and they silently made preparations. Chang Ning sat on his horse, watching the Tartar soldiers and horses ambushed here slowly approaching, and the Tartar pursuers who had chased him all night also filled the gap from the west, and his mood was clear. The Tartar in front of him, as far as the eye can see, there are seventy or eighty thousand people in the two places combined, which shows that the original information is completely wrong. The Tartar soldiers used the breakthrough of Jiayu Pass to rush east as a pull, successfully diverted the tiger from the mountain, hollowed out the garrison of Gansu Town, and then raided the Great Wall Pass of Gansu Town, and quickly took the empty city of Gansu Town, tearing open the defense system of the impregnable nine-sided town.

Although he died here today, the news here must be spread out, otherwise these two Tartar soldiers will converge and take Shandan and Yongchang in one fell swoop to the southeast, thus threatening the safety of another important town, Fanzhen, or they will go directly to Liangzhou and then go southeast and go deep into the hinterland, which is a situation of flowers blooming on all sides.

Chang Ning ordered his own soldiers around him to take pen and ink, spread out a piece of letterhead on horseback, moistened the tip of the pen with the saliva in his mouth, and hastily wrote a battle report submitted to the Ministry of War, which read: "Lord Lu, the Tatar soldiers have made a strategy of diverting the tiger from the mountain, and they have successfully attacked Gansu Town when our army attacked the thieves of the western invasion, and it has now converged in one place, and the number of people should be about 80,000. If you are trapped in the dead place, you will not be loyal to the country if you fight to the death, but please ask the court to quickly dispatch troops and horses, make a complete plan, and do not fall into the enemy's tricks. On the day of the expulsion of the Tartars, please do not forget to collect the bodies of those who died in battle and bury them, and sprinkle a glass of water and wine on them. ”

After Chang Ning wrote the letterhead, he called his heralds, handed the letter to him, ordered him to rush out to report the letter, named five hundred cavalry to pretend to break through, and escorted the herald soldiers to break through; Most of the five hundred cavalry were killed and wounded, and the herald soldiers also successfully broke through, Chang Ning had no worries, shouted, raised the nine-foot iron gun in his hand and led people to rush to the enemy formation.

This is a battle of great disparity in strength, more than 20,000 Ming soldiers faced seventy or eighty thousand Tartar soldiers and horses, fought for more than three hours, until the end of noon, this tragic battle ended with the last Ming soldier in a different place.

Under the white sun, the air was filled with the smell of fishy decay, and the overlapping corpses and slowly flowing blood covered the gravel floor red; A large number of vultures hovered in the air, and even the living people who could not wait for the battlefield to move around pounced and bit the flesh.

Since yesterday's battle with the Tartars, the more than 40,000 Ming officers and soldiers who participated in the battle in Huangshagang have now almost completely wiped out. The price paid by the Tatars was certainly not small, they lost nearly 20,000 dead and wounded; But for them, these 20,000 people were exchanged for the lives of more than 40,000 Ming soldiers, as well as the extremely important breakthrough of Gansu Town; With this breakthrough, the entire Ming Dynasty's nine-border defense line has been torn apart; It's like a huge and strong, a collapse, and no matter how strong the rest is, it has no meaning.

Bald Meng Ke stood high above the head of Gansu Town, laughing, his eagle-like gaze slowly looked east from the battlefield full of corpses under Gansu Town, under the blue sky and white clouds in the distance, the emerald green mountains were in sight, his gaze crossed the mountains, over the distant scenery, and looked at the distant place.

No one can understand the mood of the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty, they are still bathed in the sun in the morning, and a hail falls down at night, and everyone is like falling into an ice cellar. This huge gap made all the core ministers who were summoned into the palace overnight to enter the imperial study still slow down, and they were all silent, only snooping at each other with eye contact.

Zhengde sat in his chair with a pale face, his hair looking extremely messy, obviously so shocked to get this shocking news that he forgot to take care of it; In front of him, Lu Wan knelt on the ground, his buttocks pouted, and he confessed with tears in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, please punish the minister, this qiē is the fault of the minister, the minister has not thought it through, please punish the emperor."

Zhengde glanced at Lu Wan in disgust and muttered, "What's the use of punishing you?" Can I bring my 40,000 soldiers back to life? Can Gansu Town be recovered? I regret it very much, I shouldn't have listened to you, I should have believed what Song Nan said, the Tartars are scheming, so they shouldn't take the enemy lightly. I regret dying. ”

These words are even more hurtful than a slap in the face, and basically everyone who participated in the decision-making that day was here, which is to blame everyone here.

Yang Tinghe said lightly: "Your Majesty, the decision of the day was not made by Lord Lu alone, if you want to talk about responsibility, we are all responsible for what we do, but now is not the time to say this." The Tartars plotted to seize the town of Gansu, and the situation was already urgent, but Ranchen believed that things were not so bad that they were unimaginable. What we need to do now is to quickly formulate a strategy to prevent the Tartars from advancing eastward, and to hold Fanzhen Liangzhou, which cannot be missed. ”

Zhengde sighed slightly and said, "Song Nan, call him, I want to hear his opinion." ”

Zhang Lun spoke in the corner: "No one has informed him, his current status, without the permission of the emperor, cannot participate in such important discussions." ”

Zhengde opened his mouth and was about to speak, Yang Tinghe said: "Your Majesty, here are all important ministers of the court, and I don't know how many things I have experienced. Does this defeat make me panic and can't do anything? Chen Jian immediately ordered Yang Yiqing, the general commander of the trilateral system, to join the Shaanxi Xingdu Division to transfer the defenders of each guard post to reinforce Fanzhen in Liangzhou, and at the same time ordered the general military offices of each town to strictly plan the movement of the Tartars, so as not to take advantage of the transfer of our army to repeat the old tricks. In addition, the emperor needed to immediately assign a general to the northwest to take full command of the enemy's affairs; Chen Jian yì asked Xu Guangzuo, the Duke of Dingguo, to go out of the mountain to supervise military affairs. The more this time, the more calm and calm it is to stabilize the situation. When we are in chaos, the hearts of the people are also in chaos, your majesty, you must be calm. ”

Zhengde calmed down, sighed and said, "What do you adults think of Yang Shoufu's mention?" Can Dingguo Gong take on the important task? He has been at home recently, and I don't know if he still has the heart to defend against the enemy. ”

Yang Tinghe said: "The old man of Dingguo should be strong, of course he can do it, and the emperor doesn't have to worry." Just send him some powerful assistants, and the emperor can appoint Yang Yiqing as his deputy, or use Shenying Qiu Yue and others as his deputy, it's okay; I am a talented general, so I don't have to worry about it at all; If it weren't for the British Commander's Corps, the British would have been an excellent candidate. ”

Everyone can hear that Yang Tinghe deliberately avoided the name Song Nan, he knew that once something happened in the Ming Dynasty in the past few years, the first thing the emperor thought of was Song Nan; In this situation, the first choice in the emperor's mind must be Song Nan; He can't let Song Nan have another chance to turn over and rise again, in fact, his words are not exaggerated, such a war commander in the Ming Dynasty can count more than a dozen people who can do it, and point out that Dingguo Gong is just to make it heavier, so that Zhengde feels at ease and is no longer entangled in Song Nan.